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Inmates at California prison shoot video of their own escape

The crisply edited video, recorded on a contraband cellphone, has a pop-music soundtrack and includes TV news clips about the escape and subsequent manhunt.

By Michael BalsamoThe Associated Press

Wed., July 26, 2017

SANTA ANA, CALIF.—Video shot by three inmates with a smuggled cellphone shows their methodical escape through a vent at the maximum-security wing of a Southern California jail last year, along with scenes from their days on the run.

The video was provided to The Associated Press on Wednesday by an attorney for escapee Adam Hossein Nayeri.

The crisply edited video has a pop-music soundtrack and includes TV news clips about the escape and subsequent manhunt. It also contains voice-overs by Nayeri, recorded after their capture, giving his version of events and railing against the legal system.

One clip shows the inside of the maximum security dorm room, known as Module F, at the jail in Santa Ana. How the inmates got the cellphones and were able to record in jail is not clear.

“You know, a lot of people like to credit us with some Houdini escape act all in eight minutes flat. It’s an interesting myth,” Nayeri says in voice-over to the video. “In reality we did leave that mod after count. Not the one they’re claiming though. I left that module at least eight hours earlier the night before.”

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Inmates in the cramped dorm seem to know Nayeri is recording, but do not react, except for fellow escapee Bac Duong, who flashes a grin.

In this Jan. 22, 2016, image taken from a video released by attorney Salvatore P. Ciulla Wednesday, on behalf of defendant Adam Hossein Nayeri, an escapee of the Orange County Jail, Nayeri carefully exposes a previously cut metal screen covering a vent at the prison in Santa Ana, Calif. (Adam Hossein Nayeri / via The Associated Press)

The video then shows the escape.

Nayeri carefully lifts a sawed-off bunk bed leg, exposing a previously cut metal screen on a wall. The screen is set aside as he disappears into a vent.

The trio crawls through plumbing shafts within the walls. At one point Nayeri stops and gives a thumbs-up. Jonathan Tieu squints as the light of the cellphone is shined on his face.

The inmates eventually reach the roof of the Orange County Jail.

The video does not show how the inmates got to the ground. Previous reports said they rappelled down using bed linens. On the video, Nayeri says they had industrial rope, a tool box, a duffel bag and new clothes.

The next clips show the men taking turns posing at the corner of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. There are scenes from inside a van where they were sleeping.

“This is our casa for the moment. This is our crib. Water, all the basics,” Nayeri says. “Friday night in San Francisco, a special Friday night in San Francisco.”

A marijuana pipe is flashed. They hold up a bottle of Jack Daniels.

The men led authorities on a weeklong manhunt before they were recaptured.

The video does not show their recapture. Instead, Nayeri narrates the final two minutes of the edited video.

“We scared a lot of people and caused a lot of anxiety and fear and at the end of the day I can’t say I feel good about that. I can’t.”

In another section, Nayeri refers to Long Ma, the taxi driver they are charged with kidnapping, and who drove them north.

Photos show Ma with Tieu on a beach, appearing to pose for the camera.

Nayeri’s attorney, Salvatore Ciulla, did not respond to questions Wednesday about why he was releasing the video, when the voice-over was recorded and who edited the recordings.

The video was first obtained and reported-on by KNBC-TV.

Lt. Lane Lagaret, an Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman, has said the department wouldn’t comment on a video that “seeks to make light of criminal actions.”

Lagaret did not answer questions from the AP about whether officials were aware the escape was recorded, how the phone was smuggled into the jail and what, if any, policy changes have been made since the escape.

The Orange County district attorney’s office said it would be inappropriate to comment on the video because the case is in litigation.

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